Day 8 Norseman to Newmans Rocks 140 kms

Freezing cold night last night and I slept poorly with nearly all joints aching from the cold. The riders all had a great night as they have thermal sleeping bags and were all nice and toasty. I'm determined I'm not going to have another cold night so we had to go to the IGA for Ben (who wanted some eggs)so Chris had told me about these throw rugs for $6.oo which should help a little. The $6.00 jobs were the ones with animals on them or a plain one for $12.00, so I got a dolphin blanket.
Scenery today was the pink lake (Lake Dundas), the salmon gums are still dominant and lots of water in the run offs and lying on the ground. The salmon gums won't last much longer so we have to get our fill of them today. There was some confusion over the tea stop today with Collis telling them that there was a rest area with toilets at 109 kms but when we went to look for it there was nothing there. So we kept driving on further until at 119 kms we decided the book was wrong and we stopped on the side of the road instead.
The riders were not so impressed and a few got a little frazzled by the happening. Collis couldn't work out what had happened at first and kept referring back to his bible when he realized he had read the distances the wrong way around mixing up his east and west. He owned up to his mistake and everyone calmed down. It just made the ride shorter till the end of the day, it didn't add a distance onto the days ride. Peter came across a wild camel, he was a big boy, and got a great photo of him as he did a little pose for him.
We had decided to camp at Newmans Rocks, where we had camped on previous rides. Collis was a little hesitant as there is quite often no wood at this stop. But it was worth it as it is such a pretty spot to stay. A few of us braved the water hole, it was pretty icy, with Peter and Kirsten both going for a swim but the rest of us just having a wash. Very refreshing!
There was no
wood problem tonight and a large camp fire was soon underway. I cooked a meatball casserole with boiled potatoes and followed by a very successful apple crumble. I think I have mastered this dessert at a bush camp dilemma. I have previously burnt the bottom of every dessert I have cooked but the last 2 desserts have been burn free. YES!!
Annie was a lot more relaxed at this camp and didn't see axe murderers everywhere she looked this time. We thought we heard wild camels at around 8 pm but then realized the noise was actually coming from John's tent. The night was much milder tonight and I didn't really need my dolphins but I was determined to cuddle them.